Ms Isolde Goggin:

In that specific instance, it is more a question of resources than powers. That is not a complaint about resources. We are not an ombudsman for every single transaction or event that takes place in business in the country. We could not perform that role because we would need a staff of thousands. We cannot intervene in everything so we try to focus our enforcement interventions on the most egregious types of offences. We also try to empower smaller businesses to take their own actions or point out to the person they disagree with what their rights are under the law. That sometimes results in us writing to firms on behalf of a smaller complainant but we cannot do that in every case. We must prioritise and assess whether a case is suitable for us to deal with or if perhaps a sectoral regulator would be better placed to do so. We ask how much effect a case would have and to what extent we could use it as an example or case study for compliance. Acting as an economy-wide ombudsman would not be within the scope of any agency.